


Lovers

by AMidnightDreary



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Feels, Fuckbuddies To Lovers, Loki Needs To Get His Shit Together, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Unspecified Setting, is that a thing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25535590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMidnightDreary/pseuds/AMidnightDreary
Summary: Tony has been sleeping with Loki for years and in love with him for just as long, but now Loki offers him something else.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 45
Kudos: 333





	Lovers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LoveReignsSupreme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveReignsSupreme/gifts).



> It's a bit short, but well. I hope it fulfills your golden apple wishes, Claire!😆

Tony wakes up because something moves right next to him, causing the mattress to sag. He reluctantly opens his eyes and as soon as he sees Loki sitting on the edge of the bed, Tony is properly awake.

Well, sort of.

He yawns and runs a hand over his face, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He remembers promising Loki a few weeks ago that Tony wouldn't fall asleep after sex anymore; that worked very well. Oopsie.

"How long was I out?" 

"Just half an hour," Loki replies.

Tony immediately notices that Loki sounds - odd. Not  _ you fell I asleep before I was done with you so I'm pissed  _ odd, but  _ something is wrong and I might just kill you if you don't ignore it  _ odd.

Needless to say, Tony doesn't ignore it.

"You okay there, Bambi?"

Loki doesn't kill him, but he sighs. "Perfectly fine, Stark."

Okay, that's a lie. Tony knows Loki well enough to notice that. And now that he's more awake and thinking about this, it's also weird that Loki is even still here. Because usually, he disappears right after sex, and when Tony does fall asleep, Loki normally isn't there when he wakes up again. And tonight he's been lying around next to Tony for thirty minutes?

Yeah, weird.

"Loki?" Tony asks, because he doesn't know what else to ask. He's not used to actually… talking to Loki. Well, they talk and flirt and banter more than enough, but they never speak about  _ serious _ stuff.

And somehow, the tense lines of Loki's back and shoulders makes Tony think that this is about something serious.

Loki turns his head to the side, but he doesn't look at Tony and his face is carefully blank. "There is something I wanted to discuss with you."

Oh.

So that's it, then.

Slowly, Tony sits up as well, staring at Loki. He always knew that this wouldn't last forever, that Loki would end it some day, and he tries not to be too disappointed. But he can feel it all rise up in his chest, the shock and the hurt and the despair; it's so bad that it makes his throat tighten. He clears his throat and looks away - at the stained bed sheets, the blinking lights of New York he can see through the window, his own hands, anywhere as long as he didn't have to look at Loki.

"Okay," he says.

Loki stays quiet for too long. Finally, he says, "You know that I have other lovers."

Tony clenches his teeth, keeps looking at his hands. "Yeah, you've mentioned it."

It was one of Loki's conditions. He told Tony right after Tony had kissed him for the first time.  _ We can do this, but you need to accepr that they are others. There will always be others.  _ Because Loki is a god and he is centuries old, and nobody is interesting enough. Nobody is  _ entertaining _ enough. He has a few lovers spread across the nine realms and visits them sporadically, whenever he feels like it, and none of them is so stupid to think that they actually mean anything to Loki. He doesn't care about them, he just wants to have some fun with them, and eventually he gets bored and never visits them again.

Because nobody is good enough.

Tony accepted that. He wasn't fine with it and he still isn't, but he  _ can  _ accept it. Ever since he saw Loki for the first time years ago, since he figured out that the gorgeous stranger with a penchant for mischief was the most intelligent and brilliant person and the only  _ god  _ he ever met, Tony has known that Loki is  _ it _ for him. He'll never meet anyone that will fit him better, and nobody will ever be able to keep up with him like Loki, nobody will ever fascinate him nearly as much. 

So Tony decided to take what he can get. Whatever Loki is willing to give him. 

And judging by Loki's behaviour now, he is done with giving Tony anything at all.

Loki hasn't said anything else. He doesn't move and he doesn't meet Tony's eyes, and he looks like he wants to be literally everywhere else.

"I thought you'd just stop coming by," Tony tells his hands, and he hates his voice for shaking, even though it's barely noticeable. "I didn't think we'd talk about it. Because I don't want to talk about it, I don't - I don't need to hear you say it. Okay? It's fine. Really, it's fine."

It's not fine, and they both know it. They both know that Tony cares more than Loki, that he cares more  _ about _ Loki than Loki cares about him. Because that was another condition -  _ I want you in my bed, not in my life. This is not a courtship, and we will  _ never  _ be in love. _

_ Lovers _ is a word that can be interpreted very broadly.

"None of the others is Midgardian," Loki says, quietly. Still not looking at Tony.

"Okay," Tony says again, because what else can he say? 

He wants to send Loki away, wants to tell himself  _ fine, good riddance,  _ but he can't. He can't, because the thought of never seeing Loki again scares him. It scares him to death.

"Your lifes are too short," Loki adds. As if that explains anything. "Eighty years, or a hundred - that's so little time for me."

"So I'm too old now?" Tony stares at the back of Loki's head, and he doesn't know whether if he wants to laugh or yell. "Is that it?"

They met shortly after he'd turned twenty. He's nearing forty now.

"No," Loki says with a sigh. "No. But you  _ are _ aging. And I do not want to watch."

"Alright," Tony says, and now he's getting seriously angry. "Alright,  _ fine. _ Fine, then why don't you just go? I can't force you to stay, so just - fuck off. Visit one of your elves, why don't you?"

"I haven't seen any of them in years." Loki slowly shakes his head, and finally he looks over his shoulder at Tony, his face still blank. "It's been more than a decade."

"So? They're used to waiting for you, aren't they? We all are."

"I do not  _ want _ to see any of them."

That makes no sense. Tony narrows his eyes. "What?"

Loki turns around on the bed, sitting cross-legged, but now he avoids Tony's gaze again. "I do not want to see them anymore."

That still makes no sense. "What."

Frustration scurries over Loki's face. His mouth twitches. "I have been spending much more time with you, recently." A pause, then, "Recently meaning the last eight years or so."

Tony blinks. That's true, he supposes. Yes, he is used to waiting for Loki, but by now he is  _ not _ used to waiting for Loki longer than a few days, or a week at most. When they first started sleeping with each other, months passed between Loki's visits.

"Yeah," Tony says slowly. "I'm aware."

Loki glances at him. He looks unusually vulnerable, sitting there in his pants that look suspciously like Earthly pyjama pants, with his hair down and slightly messy. There's the hint of a hickey on his neck, Tony left it there earlier. It's already fading.

"I want to make you an offer," Loki says finally. His voice is firm, but Tony thinks that the confidence is faked.

"Shoot," Tony says, a little warily. 

He knows that Loki is a trickster. Oh, he would trust Loki with his life and he knows that Loki won't harm him - Loki may not love him, but he does like him, and in general he doesn't want Tony to hurt. And it's not like Loki is always aloof and arrogant when they are together - well, he's arrogant alright, but he is charming and funny and he can be very kind if he feels like it. More than once he found Tony passed out in his workshop or close to some empty bottles, and then he never left before making sure that Tony would be alright.

Loki isn't intrinsically cruel. He doesn't  _ not _ care.

He just doesn't care, doesn't want to care as much as Tony cares.

Although, what Loki says next is more than a little contradictory.

"I would like to be with you," is what he says. "Properly. No other lovers anymore." He grinds his teeth, looks at Tony just briefly. His eyes seem desperate. "If this comes too late, I understand. If you don't want me anymore, it -"

"Loki," Tony interrupts him. "What the fuck."

Loki looks at him, and now it's more than a short glance. He frowns slightly. "Excuse me?"

"If this is a prank," Tony says, "I'll never let you fuck me again. And we'd both miss that, so -"

"This is not a  _ prank,"  _ Loki snaps. "I am not trying to  _ trick _ you, I'm trying to -" He cuts himself off and takes a breath. "I'm trying to tell you that I care about you much more than I ever thought I would."

Tony isn't sure what to make of that. "Okay. Great. And now?"

"Well, like I said, I want to make you an offer -"

"I'm fucking tired of your offers, to be honest."

Loki ignored him. "I would like to be with you, but I will  _ not _ watch you die."

Tony is fucking tired of  _ this,  _ too, actually. "Yeah, sweetcheeks, I'm sorry to disappoint, but that's usually what humans do. We die. And you knew that when -"

"Yes, I knew," Loki says sharpy. "I knew, and I wanted you so much that I kept seeing you, anyway. I'd never taken a human lover before you, because knowing I'd outlive them -" He presses his lips together, shaking his head. "Knowing I'll outlive  _ you,  _ it ruins me. I don't even want to  _ be _ in the nine realms when you aren't in them anymore, and it scares me." He looks down at his hands, watches as they fiddle with the hem of his pants. "It scares me."

Tony has no idea what to say. He feels as if he ran straight into a lamp post. "Loki, what - what  _ are _ you offering?"

Loki looks up again, determination sneaking into his eyes. He holds out his hand. "This," he says.

Tony stares at the apple Loki is suddenly holding. It's golden and perfectly round, the most flawless apple Tony has ever seen. He knows what it is, and he knows what it  _ means. _

"You can't be serious," he says, stunned.

Loki shifts, coming to kneel in front of Tony on the bed. The look in his eyes is urgent. "I am very serious. I want you, Anthony, more than I have ever wanted anyone, but more than anything else I want you  _ alive." _

Tony gapes at him. His anger is gone, and now something like hope is now making his skin tingle. He doesn't think Loki ever called him  _ Anthony _ before. "So, I eat that, and I'd live -"

"Thousands of years," Loki says. "Yes."

"And we would be - what?"

"Lovers, of course." Loki lets the apple sink again, and suddenly he seems - very, very nervous. "If you'll have me."

"If I -" Tony can't help it, he huffs a laugh. "Loki, I've been in love with you for  _ ages." _

"I know," Loki says. "And I am in love with you, too. But if I waited too long, or - I know you must have been hurting this whole time, and I -"

Tony puts his hand on the back of Loki's neck and pulls him close, looking right into Loki's wide and surprised eyes. "Say that again."

Loki's eyes flicker over his face. He needs a second to understand what Tony wants to hear. "I - I  _ am _ in love with you. You have my word."

Tony has to smile, and then he has to grin, because he  _ believes _ Loki. He believes him. "I believe you," he says, and Loki seems to relax.

"Oh," he says. "Good. Then, will you -"

"Yes. Fuck, yes, I'm in."

"Truly?"

"Yeah, and I'll spend the next thousand years making you pay for letting me wait twenty years, Loki, fucking hell."

Loki seems absolutely stunned. "Well, I suppose that's fair."

Tony grins; he feels like he won't stop grinning anytime soon. If this is a dream, it's a damn good one. But Loki's answering smile and the way he kisses Tony then makes him realize that no, this is not a dream, this is  _ real. _ And Loki loves him. He  _ wants  _ him.

And oh, Tony is definitely going to make him pay. He's also going to eat the apple, though. Because spending what's practically eternity at Loki's side, discovering the realms and seeing and learning everything there is to see and learn?

Yeah. Perfection.


End file.
